Community leaders talked about putting an end to school violence at a town hall in Tampa's Seminole Heights neighborhood Thursday night. The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists hosted the event in response to the Parkland shooting last month that left 17 people dead.

Students filled the front rows at the center of the auditorium at Tampa’s King High School during an optional voter registration campaign put on Wednesday by the Hillsborough County Elections Office. They were chattering when they walked in, but the room silenced when county officials started speaking.

They were ready to build on a political movement started by students in South Florida after a deadly school shooting there two weeks ago.

While thousands of students were in Tallahassee Wednesday to push for stronger gun laws after last week’s shooting in a high school in Parkland, teenagers across Florida walked out of class in a show of solidarity.

Hundreds of Hillsborough County school teachers protested at Tuesday's School Board meeting in Tampa.

Friction between teachers and administrators began surfacing last month when teachers were told they would not be getting a pay raise. Under a negotiated pay plan, teachers have received a four thousand dollar increase every three years if they attain high evaluation scores.

But now, the school district says it cannot afford the $17 million dollars it would take to pay out those performance raises to teachers and support staff.

It was with great fanfare in 2009 that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it was giving $100 million to Hillsborough County schools for a program called Empowering Effective Teachers -- one of just three public school districts in the country awarded the grant.

At the time, it was at the forefront of the movement to pay teachers for performance, rather than seniority.

Now, the district won't be getting a fifth of that money. And the consequences to the school district's budget are coming clear. Increases in teacher pay and bonuses haven't been matched by the Gates Foundation money or other revenue, forcing the school district to dip into its financial reserves.

Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Jeff Eakins brought the latest data on school suspensions to the Hillsborough County school board on Tuesday. He said out-of-school suspensions were down 53 percent from the same time period last year. Eakins said there were several reasons why.

"There is strong advocacy for kids," Eakins said. "There are increased interventions at school sites prior to suspension. There is increased communication between our principals and our area superintendents." Eakins said he was "very proud" of the numbers.

Today is the day for the 2014 Great American Teach-In. Thousands of people from all walks of life will flock to schools in the region to share their stories of jobs and hobbies, to remind kids that education is what helps you get the job you want.

Of course, not all of them will be wearing a cool uniform, or flying a helicopter or driving a fire truck.